July 7, 2014 — What appears to be the largest halibut caught in the Pacific Ocean in at least a decade has been landed in the Alaska Panhandle port of Gustavus, but it will not be a world record.
Seventy-seven-year-old Jack McGuire from Anaheim, Calif., lost the opportunity for the sport-fishing record book when his 482-pound halibut was shot and then harpooned before it was pulled aboard the charter boat Icy Rose.
International Game Fish Association rules ban the use of any tools other than a net or gaffe for landing fish, and the Florida-based IGFA maintains the international record book.
Unfortunately, it is dangerous to pull monster halibut aboard a small boat. Their thrashing has been known to injure people and even sink watercraft. McGuire was fishing aboard a 28-foot boat — commonly called a "six-pack charter" — when he hooked the fish near the mouth of Glacier Bay, just west of Gustavus, on Thursday.
"I think if (Capt. Rye Phillips) had known how big it was, he wouldn't have shot it," said Andy Martin, manager of Deep Blue Charters and Alaskan Anglers Inn in Gustavus. He is Phillips' employer.
Both businesses are based in the community of about 450 people that bills itself as the gateway to the 3.3-million-acre Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve to the north.
Read the full story at Alaska Dispatch News